Who Gets a Swiss Passport? A Natural Experiment in Immigrant Discrimination

We study discrimination against immigrants using microlevel data from Switzerland, where, until recently, some municipalities used referendums to decide on the citizenship applications of foreign residents. We show that naturalization decisions vary dramatically with immigrants’ attributes, which we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American political science review 2013-02, Vol.107 (1), p.159-187
Main Authors: HAINMUELLER, JENS, HANGARTNER, DOMINIK
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude Measures
Ballot boxes
Ballots
Beliefs
Bias
Citizenship
Disadvantaged
Discrimination
Economics
Europe
Experiments
Foreign residents
Immigrants
Immigration
Immigration policy
Inferences
Labor market
Local Government
Municipalities
Naturalization
Noncitizens
Passports
Political Issues
Political science
Polls & surveys
Professional certification
Public Opinion
Public opinion surveys
Racial Discrimination
Referendum
Referendums
Research Design
Social Bias
Social Desirability
Social integration
Statistical discrimination
Switzerland
Turkey
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
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Summary:We study discrimination against immigrants using microlevel data from Switzerland, where, until recently, some municipalities used referendums to decide on the citizenship applications of foreign residents. We show that naturalization decisions vary dramatically with immigrants’ attributes, which we collect from official applicant descriptions that voters received before each referendum. Country of origin determines naturalization success more than any other applicant characteristic, including language skills, integration status, and economic credentials. The average proportion of “no” votes is about 40% higher for applicants from (the former) Yugoslavia and Turkey compared to observably similar applicants from richer northern and western European countries. Statistical and taste-based discrimination contribute to varying naturalization success; the rewards for economic credentials are higher for applicants from disadvantaged origins, and origin-based discrimination is much stronger in more xenophobic municipalities. Moreover, discrimination against specific immigrant groups responds dynamically to changes in the groups’ relative size.
ISSN:0003-0554
1537-5943
DOI:10.1017/S0003055412000494